


romantic realizations and confessions in mock-interstellar environments

by Rustyanklebraclet



Series: Community episode rewrites [6]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Episode: s04e03 Conventions Of Space And Time, First Kiss, Fix-It, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24528250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rustyanklebraclet/pseuds/Rustyanklebraclet
Summary: Troy's jealousy of Toby goes a little deeper than he thought, and Britta helps him handle it.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Annie Edison, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison & Britta Perry, Troy Barnes & Britta Perry, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: Community episode rewrites [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772773
Comments: 22
Kudos: 284





	romantic realizations and confessions in mock-interstellar environments

**Author's Note:**

> this is my fifth community fic in like. a week and a half. i have no idea where all of this is coming from but i do know i have a drive folder full of wips, a note on my phone full of ideas, and no intention of slowing down.
> 
> canon-compliant until s04e03 (obviously).

Troy watches Abed and Toby, frustratedly mangling his pizza as the two of them bounce off of each other. He’s not following the conversation, but not for lack of trying. They don’t even have to finish their sentences, just know what the other is going to say and respond.

“Is that-”

“Let’s go.”

And the two of them are off, neither of them even sparing Troy a second (or even first) glance.

“What about the photo?” Troy asks, but they keep walking, clearly not even having heard him. He sighs dejectedly and slumps back in his seat.

“Do they even have to talk?” scoffs Britta, rolling her eyes “they could just touch tentacles and download.”

Troy frowns, looking over his shoulder to where Toby and Abed had disappeared.

“You know, this is good, because, you know” Troy tries to push away his jealousy, tries to be positive and see that this is good for his best friend “Abed's branching out. And Toby is really, really great.”

But Britta shakes her head, furrowing her eyebrows.

"No, Troy, I've seen that look before," she says "girls have given me that look before. You are not being crazy. That dude is trying to steal your boyfriend."

It's a joke, thrown out there like it's nothing. She doesn't mean anything by the word, because that's what it is. a word. She’s making a joke that’s been made dozens of times, by the study group and by others. A joke Shirley laughs at because the thought of it being true scares her, and a joke that Pierce laughs at because he likes Troy and Abed, so it can’t be true. A joke Britta’s made because the two of them are together. It’s normal, it’s offhand. It’s meaningless.

Except for the fact that the word douses Troy in ice water, and his breath hitches, and she watches him curiously before recognition creeps very slowly across his face.

There’s a moment of very tense silence, where information has been unintentionally

released and there’s nothing either of them can do. Troy bites so hard on the inside of his lip that he tastes blood, and Britta just keeps blinking.

Finally, she speaks, voice slightly thick.

“Oh.”

It’s underwhelming, really. He had expected her to yell at him, to call him an asshole and a manipulator and all the other things that might sting, but he would deserve.

He swallows, hard, and hears his father's voice in the back of his head.

_Be a man, Troy._

If it weren’t completely inappropriate, he would laugh at that, considering the heart palpitations his father would have if he knew the context of the situation.

“I’m sorry,” he says, quietly, wondering if she’s even heard him over the buzz of the convention.

But she shakes her head, eyes trained on the table, so he knows she has.

“Don’t be. I feel like maybe I should have known” she looks at him, now “you know this makes you the third boyfriend I’ve had that’s turned out gay?”

“Not, uh, gay” he says, rather awkwardly “bi, or something. I don’t know. Not gay, though.”

She has an odd look on her face, and the implications of his statement register with him.

“Oh, shit, Britta, no-” he backpedals furiously, taking one of her hands in his “No, like, It’s not personal, honest. I really do like you, I just-”

But she shakes her head again, using her free hand to wave him off.

“You’re in love with Abed, man, it’s fine. I get it” she sighs, wiping her eyes with the back of her arm “I really do. I needed a second, there, but I’ve processed it. I’m not mad.”

Troy, however, is unconvinced, and she seems to pick up on it.

“Seriously. Do you know how many times Jeff referred to him as ‘my boyfriend’s boyfriend’? Or how many times Pierce joked about us bearding for each other? Not that I’m condoning any joke Pierce has ever made, but I’d kind of have to be an idiot not to have wondered occasionally.”

“I’m still sorry,” he says “if it’s any condolence, things were already getting pretty serious with us by the time I started to figure it out. But I should have stopped it.”

She just shrugs.

“I guess I _am_ pretty torn up about it. Maybe I'll be consoled if you buy me a churro and tell me all about your mushy feelings so I can use them as blackmail.”

Troy gives her a small smile, and she returns it.

They end up walking around the convention centre while they talk, stopping intermittently to check out a booth. Troy feels awkward at first, telling the girl he was dating until less than an hour prior about his feelings for his best friend, but she turns out to be a pretty good listener.

They pass the line for the gluon photos, and he frowns at it with a pang.

“It just sucks, knowing he’ll never feel the same way”

He keeps walking, but gets maybe ten feet before he realizes Britta is gone from his side. He turns around, and she’s still standing in front of the gluon line, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

“Britta?” he calls, and walks back over to her when she doesn’t move.

“Britta?” he says again, once he’s in front of her “what is it?”

She takes a deep breath, opens and then closes her mouth a few times, and then shakes her head and takes one of his hands in both of hers.

“I have defended your intellect many times,” she says “but sometimes, Troy, you’re a little bit of a moron.”

He makes a face. “What are you saying?”

She grabs him by the arm and pulls him to the side, out of the flow of traffic.

“I’m saying the Abed is as deeply, sickeningly, unfathomably in love with you as you are him, dumbass,” she says, almost angrily, with a flick to his shoulder.

He frowns, rubbing the offended area. “No he’s not.”

She makes a face that he gets from Annie all the time. The “I don’t even have the emotional strength to explain how wrong you are” face.

“Do I need to call Annie?”

“What? No.”

“Because you know she’ll agree?”

Troy presses his mouth into a firm line.

“Exactly. Now if you really don’t want me to call her, I won’t, but-”

“No,” says Troy, “call her.”

Britta raises her eyebrows at him for a moment, clearly expecting him to backtrack. When he doesn’t, she just shrugs and pulls her phone, pulling up Annie’s contact and switching it to speakerphone. The two of them lean in to hear her better as her tinny little “hello?” comes through Britta's phone.

“Hey, Annie? I just have a quick question for you.”

“What’s up?” she asks “Is everything alright?”

“Peachy keen, James Dean,” Britta says “you’re on speaker with both Troy and me, I just need you to settle a little squabble we’re having.”

“Britta, I really don’t want to get in the middle of-”

“In your professional opinion, is Abed in love with Troy?”

The line goes completely silent, and Troy can almost see Annie's nervous expression as she tries to figure out how to proceed.

“Well, I don’t really, um...” she trails off, and Britta shakes her head.

“I’m asking, for the record, because Troy is concerned about Abed reciprocating his own feelings.”

“Oh! Oh my god, Troy! That’s great!” says Annie, before pausing “wait, hold on, what’s the date?”

“The twentieth?” says Britta, her and Troy sharing a confused glance “why?”

“No reason. Jeff definitely doesn’t owe me twenty bucks, because that would mean I was betting on my friend’s love lives, which is immoral.”

There’s a momentary silence, before Annie clears her throat.

“Anyways,” she chirps, “yeah, Troy, Abed is very much in love with you. You know how none of us can ever tell what he’s thinking? Yeah, that’s the one exception to the rule. It’s almost unsettling how obvious it is.”

And everything hits Troy all at once, and it’s a little overwhelming. His brain is the most wrinkled it’s ever been, but one thing is clear:

“I need to talk to Abed.”

Britta smiles at him.

“Go,” she says, with a nod.

“Good luck!” says Annie through the phone, and Britta reaches up to plant a kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you,” he says “you’ve been so ridiculously cool, I don’t know how to make it up to you.”

“You can find Abed,” she says, with an encouraging nod. She hesitates, and then adds “and you can let me throw the first punch if, and when, Pierce says something shitty.”

He grins, pulling her into a quick hug and then running off in pursuit of Abed, wondering how he’s gonna get him away from Toby.

He ends up in an aisle of replica phone booths, sees Toby standing in front of one, and rushes over. He’s leaning against the one on the end, and steps away from it to face him when he spots Troy.

“Toby,” he says, “where’s Abed?”

“He’s packing” Toby replies, with a smug grin, “he said you have a girlfriend and don’t need him anymore. He’s coming with me to England.”

Troy ignores the feeling of his stomach dropping towards the floor as he steps closer, trying to project confidence.

“You’re lying”

“How would you know?”

“Because Abed’s my friend,” he says “and he would have told me. And he would have explained it to me in very clear terms. Because I get confused sometimes.”

He realizes that the latch on the booth next to him, the one Toby had been standing against, is flipped down, unlike all the others surrounding them.

“He’s in there, isn’t he?” Troy asks, pointing to the booth.

Toby laughs uncomfortably, and mutters a rather unconvincing “No.”

“Hey Troy,” says Abed from inside the booth, and the last shred of doubt is pushed from his mind as he responds with a quick “hey, Abed” before rearing on Toby.

“Toby,” he says, in his most intimidating voice (which isn’t difficult, considering who he’s talking to) “have you ever been in a fight? Because I have.”

He emphasizes this by balling his gloved hand into a fist, and Toby’s eyes widen.

“Oh my god,” Toby says to himself “he can make a fist. That would hurt even harder than a slap.”

“You’re damn right it would,” says Troy, and he throws his whole body into it as he swings at him.

Toby, of course, hits the ground immediately. And, okay, in retrospect, Troy probably shouldn’t have hit him as hard as he did, but he’s running on a lot of adrenaline and needs to be kissing Abed, like, fifteen minutes ago.

He swings the door open, and Abed is standing there, arms at his sides and a neutral expression on his face.

If you had asked him beforehand what he would have wanted the confession to look like, given him the chance to plan it all out like one of Abed’s storyboards for a movie of his, it would have been big, dramatic, romantic.

But instead, he opens the door, looks at Abed for all of two seconds, and blurts out

“I’m in love with you”

Abed is very silent, as is the crowd that’s formed around them. And he’s cursing Annie and Britta in his head for getting him all riled up, letting him think that Abed would ever feel the same way. But then Abed nods, very slowly.

“Cool. cool, cool, cool. I am too.”

Troy feels his eyes go wide, and his heart feels like it’s going to pound out of his chest.

“In love with you, I mean.” Abed adds, after a moment “I’m not in love with myself.”

“No, I got that,” Troy says, rather lamely, throat dry.

“I’d like to kiss you now,” says Abed, and Troy nods vigorously.

Abed moves forward, grabs both sides of his face, and pushes their mouths together.

There are a couple of cheers around them, from the bystanders that had watched it all play out, and Troy has no idea what to do with his hands, so they just sort of hang limply at his sides.

Abed pulls back, and Troy really wants nothing other than to kiss him a whole lot more, but Abed focuses on something a little behind them.

“Several security guards are coming directly towards us.”

“Shit. what do we do?”

“I vote we run.”

Troy nods, and Abed holds out his hand. Troy takes it, and they’re off, nearly bumping into several people.

It doesn’t work, of course. Security catches up to them embarrassingly quickly, and before they know it, they’re sitting in the lobby of the hotel while Troy calls Britta to tell her what happened.

Before long, the rest of the study group shows up (Troy doesn’t even know where Shirley and Pierce came from).

Everyone is making small talk. The other five keep stealing glances at he and Abed’s joined hands, but refuse to say anything.

Jeff is the first to crack.

“Oh, for the love of God, somebody PLEASE address it!”

There’s a few seconds of silence, before Shirley finally clears her throat, and speaks in a kind voice.

“Troy, Abed,” she says “would you like to share something with the group?”

Abed and Troy share a look, and Abed turns to the rest of the group.

“Was it not clear?”

There’s a brief pause where everyone clearly expects him to go on, and then five heads shaking and some murmuring when it’s obvious he’s not going to.

“Oh,” he says “we’re together.”

Annie, who is sitting on the side next to Troy not occupied by Abed, claps her hands excitedly, and Jeff gives her a look that confirms her earlier comment about him owing her money.

Other than that, the group is mostly silent, nobody quite sure what to say.

Jeff speaks, finally.

“Well, I can’t say it wasn’t a long time coming.”

Troy laughs, but pulls out his phone and uses the arm not occupied by Abed to text Annie as the rest of the group chatters excitedly.

_If theres n e way u can get more $$ from jeff off of this lmk and we’ll lie for u if u promise 2 pay 4 pizza nxt movie nite_

_deal_

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://readandwritesilver.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HOMINGPIGE0N) if you want
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is appreciated :)
> 
> Much love, Clover <3


End file.
